Routledge Masters in Public Management Series

Human Resource Management in Public Service Organizations

by Rona S. Beattie and Jennifer Waterhouse

Published 30 March 2023

The latest instalment of the successful Routledge Masters in Public Management series: Human Resource Management in Public Service Organizations addresses a significant gap in texts that are available to practitioners and scholars of public sector management. There has been an extensive adoption of private sector human resource management (HRM) techniques within the public sectors of various countries. This transformation has had its genesis in public choice theory which has argued that government is inefficient and non-responsive.

Beattie and Waterhouse combine practical techniques of human resource management within the context of the public sector focussing on a number of key areas:

- The various components of HRM and how they may be applied in a public sector environment
- Debates in relation to the benefits of HRM within the public sector, and in particular, whether the distinctiveness of the public sector calls for a unique practice of HRM.
- Critically evaluating the interaction between HRM and the changing context of public management.
- Critically evaluating the interaction between HRM and public and voluntary sector values.

Human Resource Management in Public Service Organizations seeks to equip public sector managers and students of public management with the necessary skills and knowledge to more effectively manage their human resources.